From The Winter 2004 Issue of Natural Grocery Buyer

Snacks Attack Customers’ Carb Cravings

Manufacturers trying to cook up more snap, crackle, crunch

Vicky Uhland

Ask Atkins or South Beach dieters what they miss most when counting carbs, and the answer usually isn’t pasta, potatoes or pancakes.

What low-carb aficionados crave is the satisfying crunch that comes from biting into a handful of corn chips, or the sweet smoothness of buttercream frosting slathered on a chocolate cupcake. In short, they want guilt-free snacks.

While most low-carb diets are based on restricting or eliminating certain types of foods, such as bread or potatoes, a new study found that low-carbers are more resistant to giving up snacks such as chips, energy bars and cookies, which are packed with high-carb wheat flour or sugar.

“Snack foods that are quick and easy have the most market potential for low-carb diets and could represent a possible exception to the general aversion consumers have regarding the addition of new foods while on the diet,” concludes Bellevue, Wash.-based market researcher The Hartman Group in its fall 2003 report, The Low-Carb Diet and Today’s Consumer.

“Dieters do gravitate to snacks for one simple reason: Restrictive diets tend to get boring,” says John Reed, spokesman for nSpired Natural Foods, manufacturer of low-carb PumpKorn pumpkin seeds. In addition, he points out, “It takes a great act of will for low-carb dieters to detour around all those tasty, salty, fattening chips, pretzels and high-carb snacks in the supermarket snack aisle.”

While The Hartman Group didn’t track which type of snacks low-carb dieters crave most, the report did tabulate the foods most interesting to the 67 percent of adult U.S. consumers who watch how many carbs they eat—whether or not they’re intentionally on a low-carb diet. These “moderate” low-carbers, as the Hartman report termed them, showed an interest in specially formulated low-carb snacks. The report singled out protein bars, noting their snacking convenience. Surveys of manufacturers and distributors show that low-carb snack bars are top sellers.

Lowcarbsonline.com, which sells prepared low-carb foods, reports that six of its 10 best sellers are Atkins energy/dessert bars, including Atkins Endulge. Bodybuilding.com lists Atkins Advantage energy bars as its top-selling Atkins product.

Low-carb snack bars are so popular that mainstream energy bar manufacturers are getting into the act. PowerBar’s Carb Select energy bars are scheduled to hit grocery shelves early this year. The bars, which come in five flavors and contain ingredients like caramel, chocolate, peanuts and cookie pieces, are offered in separate formulations for men and women. According to Power Bar’s research, women want low-carb foods that are sized for snacking but taste like an indulgence. Men want low-carb bars that satisfy their hunger, taste good and have high protein content.

Snack bars are hot sellers because carb counters want a “street-legal snack for their carb addiction,” says Arne Bey, chairman and chief executive of Trenton Falls, N.J., low-carb food manufacturer Keto Foods.

Keto makes 13 different snack bars in flavors ranging from blueberry cheesecake to s’mores. The bars sell so well that Keto has developed mini bars designed for women who can’t eat an entire snack bar. Keto is also catering to America’s sweet tooth by developing low-carb cookies, single-serving cakes and super-premium ice cream bars and sandwiches made with lower-carb cream rather than high-carb milk. Bey is so confident in low-carbers’ sweet cravings, he’s forecasting $100 million in ice cream sales in the first year.

At Fabe’s Natural Gourmet, a Reseda, Calif., company that specializes in natural baked goods, muffins are the best sellers among the company’s low-carb snacks, says Jennifer Fabos, director of sales and marketing. “I think it’s because they’re an alternative to a [low-carb] breakfast that you have to make, like eggs and bacon.”

One reason that salty snacks don’t sell as well as sweet snacks is a simple matter of supply. Until recently, there have been few low-carb chips and crackers available in grocery stores. The reason? They’re difficult to manufacture.

Keto makes dozens of sweet snacks but only three kinds of chips. Manufacturing a snack chip that has the crunch, taste and texture of a Frito or Cheeto is “very challenging,” Bey says—so much so that Keto’s low-carb chip formula is patented. “Most chips are grain-based, and when the carb molecules in those grains are fried or baked, that’s what makes the crunch,” Bey says.

The Hain Celestial Group spent months conducting trial runs to develop its Carb-Fit tortilla chips, pretzels and cheese puffs, says Adam Levit, vice president of sales and marketing. The challenge? “Look at a pretzel—it’s 100 percent carbs,” he says. “Or a potato chip—it’s just a potato.”

Hain solved the problem by swapping corn or wheat flour, which are high in carbs, with soy or wheat protein, which are low. But that caused cooking problems because Hain’s snack-making equipment wasn’t set up to deal with low-carb recipes.

“One of the big challenges on pretzels was getting the dough through the extruders,” Levit says. “It all depends on how you mix [the ingredients], how you add them in, the seasonings and what types of soy you use.”

Making a sweet snack is mainly a question of substituting flours and sugars. Fabe’s uses protein flour, such as soy, or nut flour, such as almond, which are naturally low-carb. Table sugar substitutes include naturally occurring lower-carb sugar alcohols, such as maltitol, sorbitol and xylitol, and artificial sugars such as Splenda.

Sidebars:
Liquor—Still Low-Carb